National Tyres and Autocare - Poole Avis 84

Expensive Tyre Repair and would not accept discounted loyalty scheme from either Halfords Premier Membership or Defence Discount.

No response from Halfords or National Tyres Customer Care or the CEO of Halfords Mr BIRCH

Dreadful experience. Brought my car for an MOT, left with a near £500 bill for unnecessary brake work. Brakes were fine prior but became noisy post-replacement. Two return visits yielded different explanations for the noise. Despite an 8:30 am booking for MOT and tires (confirmed the day before), the MOT was inexplicably delayed until 1:30 pm. I question the integrity of this establishment and strongly advise seeking a more reputable service to avoid wasted time and inflated costs.

The Background
We placed order with national (who are now under Halfords) on 21st November 2024. With the work taking place on 23rd November 2024.

The work we paid for and requested was:
New Napa Battery
Winter Prep Service
4x New Good year tyres
Which then loaded options for free clutch check, free steering check and free brake check. To note all of these were fine, and were all fully checked in the service and MOT we had in June, but we added them purely as they were free.
We were booked in for 08:30 in the morning and surprisingly the work was a bit delayed meaning we picked it up between 2 and 3 on the 23rd November 2024. , when they rang I asked if everything was okay, i asked if the clutch and brakes still looked fine, to which I was told all in good condition and no issues and then i asked if the battery and tyres were all okay and they confirmed they were.

The Issue
On Friday 29th November we were driving, and at 8am just after we passed a roundabout and i went to change gear as normal and the clutch had completely gone, out of nowhere and the Warning (Stop) light came straight on and had that clutch smell around car. I pulled over straight away and turned the car off and looked under the car and the clutch under tray was dangling from underneath the car and Fluid leaking front the car from the clutch area of the car.

Before my so called free clutch i had 0 issues the tray was on fully everything about the clutch was sound, especially as it was checked in June, so it seemed totally too coincidental that everything was fine and then i get my free clutch check and then just a handful of days later its totally busted.

Thankfully my friend is a fully qualified mechanic and MOT tester and he came and looked at the car for me, he told me to write this review as quite frankly he believes this was a deliberate act of negligence, to deliberately cause a clutch fail and to then make me go back to national for a new clutch. Which in his words is playing with lives, had that of gone on the busy roundabout before, who knows what would have happened.

This is backed up by his pictures and a report he is currently drawing up. The pictures i have attached (it's worth noting that nothing was hanging previously and all fine condition).

The pictures supplied and attached show a melted clutch slave, it also shows the Fly wheel which has a blue tinge indicative of metal getting hot and it shows the awful state of the unsalvageable clutch tray. All evident of excessive wheel spinning or/and being really aggressive with the clutch, so hot that the slave had melted.

Existing case number is 24926485

Can't thank you enough for your great service. Had my car MoT there and the service they provided was seamless. I would highly recommend this place to anyone wishing to put their car in anywhere.

Thank you so much anthony

Job number 526/9008718
Cancelled my mot saying my car needed to go to a VW specialist, got the breakdown cover to come, they lifted the bonnet and the cap was off of the oil. They did not think to lift the bonnet and check this! They then failed my mot for the engine warning light being on which was not on! So they had to retest and pass it. Do not think they employ people who know enough about cars. When I asked for compensation they said they were retesting it for free which A) was due to a mistake they made and B) a retest is free up to 2 weeks after your mot! Liars throughout the whole 2 days of torture.

Absolutely terrible system & service.
Booked & paid for 4 new tyres via their website on the Monday, with a date to have them fitted for the Friday. Arrived at the tyre centre only to find out they had no details of my booking. Also told that I should have called them to arrange as the website is rubbish & they've never heard of the tyres as shown in my confirmation email. Way to go Halford/National tyres! I for one will definitely not be back & will now be advising others the same.
In response to the reply below my order number was 8107513

I have used National tyres for many years now (20ish if not more) although they got on with the changing of a full set of tyres within allotted time etc, but what a miserable bunch they are at the reception desk, each time I spoke to them over the last few days they made you feel that you shouldn’t speak.
No greetings no good by have a nice day. While I was on the phone I was put on hold and heard the same man really being not helpful to a customer I assume in the reception. WE were really shocked in fact my wife would not go in preferring to stand outside in the heavy rain.
Today I’ve been to kwikfit by recommendation for a new set on another car what a difference it was it was as though they new me kept me informed (wheel alignment new job etc) cheerful smile on leaving and have a nice day.
Come on National tyres your men need training in how to greet and be friendly to customers. Sorry but you’ve lost our business.

Awful service me and my partner limped round from asda across road said could they help us as are front tyre was going flat all we got was were busy got cars that need repairing customer service was shocking not a care in the world.not to worry went to pro tyre they were more than helpfull to help us and never charged us for a faulty valve so guess where we will be going in future we did.nt have a case number did.nt get to have car sorted as staff were very unhelpfull even if u can't do job you should be more helpfull then they were no smile unwilling to help us at all on the other hand pro tyre werevery busy but still fitted us in smily faces lovely customer service .

Paid for a mobile fitter to come to me as I work 6 days a week and can't get to a centre only to get an email today to say the mobile fitter is unavailable

Down in poole on holiday. My tyre kept losing pressure. Took to quick fit twice. Said no problem. Booked in with these guys and found 2 nails in tyre straight away. Changed it for us as quick as they could and we were on our way again. Friendly and helpful staff. Thankyou

The online ordering was difficult and unclear, so much so that I ended up paying 3 times.
BUT I can’t fault the National Tyre Centre in Poole (West Quay Road) and Halford’s Services Dept both of whom were extremely helpful in rectifying the order.

The service was very good, they were on time and the MOT was done and my car was ready for me in the car park. The staff were friendly and helpful.

First time using National Tyres in Poole. I bought 3 new tyres for my car & the staff could not have been more helpful, polite & friendly. They also Helped me sort my Halfords Motoring Club (they are now part of the Halfords group) so I could get discount & fitted the 3 new tyres within an hour. Perfect. Would definitely recommend using them. Trivial, but it helped get us through the door, after they recently had a shop front face lift!

Great service, great team

Very efficient and helpful with good advice

Really easy online process.

I would just like to say how easy it was to get on the payment plan I would thoroughly recommend

Took car in to have two new tyres and front wheel alignment, quick service , time given it would take was spot on , email sent to me when car was ready.Iv used the Poole National Tyres branch since 2020 for MOT, repairs , exhaust replacement,tyres , wheel alignment , alternator/battery check and I have to say iv always had excellent customer service and quality work done.Fair, honest and reliable, my go to garage and I really appreciate the staff as it's hard to find a trustworthy garage these days.